On Wednesday, the prosecution requested five years’ imprisonment, two of which could be converted into a firm sentence, and a five-year ban on standing for election. Marine Le Penin the case of the parliamentary assistants of the Front National (formerly Rassemblement National), for which she is on trial before the Paris court alongside her party and 24 other defendants. There are “a desire to ruin the party”.reacted the president of the RN group in the National Assembly.

The prosecution has asked for this sentence to be provisionally enforced, i.e. to apply from the moment of conviction, even if the three-time presidential candidate appeals, believing that she is not accountable for the “ambitions” of the defendants. He was also fined 300,000 euros.

“System” set up between 2004 and 2016

“We are not here today because of a relentless”nor because of a denunciation “from the European Parliamentbut at the end “of a lengthy judicial investigationsaid one of the two prosecution representatives, Louise Neyton. “You will make your decision on the basis of the evidence in the case”.and then “six weeks of hearings and “particularly rich debates”continued the magistrate in a full courtroom where Marine Le Pen sat in the front row next to Louis Aliot, the RN’s current number 2.

In turn, the two prosecutors detailed the architecture of a “system which they claim was put in place at the Front National (now RN) between 2004 and 2016, involving the hiring of European parliamentary assistants “fictitious” who actually worked for the party.